The Freshman 15, sometimes put under the ominous-sounding umbrella of the Fat Fresher Syndrome, is a concept that’s been thrown about across generations. It rests on the premise that first-year students gain weight – 15 pounds, to be exact.
Although the 15-pound figure is much debated, body changes at university are likely and, of course, entirely understandable. Upon arriving at their respective destinations, freshers have to cope with a major influx of change, be that in the form of a new city, new friends or even a new sense of personal identity. In most cases, the inevitable by-products of all this newness are eating less healthily, doing less exercise and drinking more alcohol.
Unfortunately, it’s for this natural reaction that freshers are met by a wave of judgement and unwarranted advice. Tabloids, like Concrete Online, give impromptu rundowns on weight loss methods and the calorific values of various drinks; student newspapers, like Her Campus Newcastle, recommend swapping snacks for glasses of water; and even housing blog Accommodation for Students encourages students to ‘fight the bulge’ and mock them for ‘carrying more pounds than [they’re] spending.'
With eating disorders becoming more and more prevalent, such widespread discussion of young people’s bodies is not just risky but lethal.
A quick scroll through The Student Room is all you need to find an endless stream of freshers fretting about ‘ballooning’ at university. In one thread, a first-year worries about ‘turning into a whale’ and asks for the easiest way to lose weight. In another, a veteran student brags about how, to avoid gaining weight and over-spending, they stuck to a diet of ‘Diet Coke and Hobnobs'. The words ‘fatally’, ‘suffer’, ‘self-control’ and even ‘porker’ pop up a lot – as, bizarrely, do 'beating' and 'dodging'.
It is easy to see how such seemingly light-hearted dialogue can lead to unhealthy behaviors like skipping meals, compulsive exercise and fad dieting.
Of course, eating balanced, nutritious meals and staying hydrated has the potential to enhance both physical and emotional wellbeing. But, with Healthline placing stress as one of the top reasons for changes in body size and eating disorders having a higher mortality rate than any other mental illness, scaremongering about the size of young people’s bodies is, at best, ineffectual and, at worst, life-threatening.
And so, although it seems superfluous to ask that people treat others’ and, indeed, their own bodies with compassion, I beg you: stop the chorus on freshers' weight gain. A new social commentary surrounding students' fluctuating sizes is both astoundingly necessary and bafflingly overdue. Gossip around the Freshers 15 as a 'syndrome' that needs 'escaping' has and will cause more harm than good.
Comments